The HWM

I will hold my hand up now and say I am very lucky. Having a father who was a strident chairman of The Historic Grand Prix Cars Association (but due to heart problems was unable to retain his race licence) I was allowed to take over the driving duties of our HWM Grand Prix car. It was the number 1 works car in 1952 and was driven predominantly by Lance Macklin but was also piloted by Peter Collins towards the end of the 1953 season.  The car's moment of glory came in 1952 at the Daily Express International Trophy at Silverstone when Lance brought it home first in front of Tony Rolt in another HWM and Baron de Graffenried in a Maserati 4clt. It was a good day for the small HWM equipe.

Lance Macklin winner of the 1952 International Trophy in chassis 107, Silverstone. Note the 'LM' insignia on side of cockpit.

 George Abacassis and John Heath, the founders of HWM, worked their cars hard throughout 1952 and '53. They survived on the 'start' money offered by European race organisers so the more Grand Epreuves they entered the greater their income.  This resulted in a relentless charge across Europe from one weekend to the next often with mechanic Alf Francis at the wheel of the AEC transporter.  Some weekends they would even split the team so they could attend two Grand Epreuves simultaneously. Pau, Marseille, Silverstone, Bremgarten, Montlhery, Nordschleife... the list was endless resulting in our chassis (107) notching up over thirty Grand Epreuves starts between 1952 - '53. When British racing green was conspicuously absent in Europe it was this rather disparate band of men (the polish immigrant mechanic Francis, the boy wonder Moss, the suave well-to-do gent Macklin) surviving on a shoestring that kept British racing hopes alive.

John Heath with an HWM (Hersham & Walton Motors) mechanic

                        

George Abecassis

                                                         

HWM team cars lined up at Silverstone

                                                  
When the 1953 European season was over George Abecassis saw the Tasman series in Australia and New Zealand as another potential money earner.  Tony Gaze, who was a semi works driver was packed off to his native Australia with our car.  Abecassis and Heath knew the HWM would be up against some serious machinery in the Tasman series but they had a rather special plan - they took the twin blown engine from Joe Kelly's 1951 Grand Prix Alta, enlarged it to two litres but still retained the twin superchargers and put that engine into the HWM.   This obviously upped the car's potential enormously creating a bhp output in the region of 250.

HWM chassis 107's 2 litre engine with twin blowers (only just visible) mounted at the front of the engine.

                 
 Tony was instructed to sell the car in Australia and thus avoid the 'purchase tax' imposed in the UK, which he did to John Horton but not before putting in some impressive race results such as 2nd in the Lady Wigram Trophy and third in the New Zealand Grand Prix  beating Ken Wharton in the V16 BRM.  The HWM was campaigned competitively down under until the early 1960s.
By 1954 HWM was finding far more success putting Jaguar engines into their sports car chassis than with their Grand Prix cars so production stopped on the single seaters.  There are therefore not many true single seater HWMs left.  Not counting the earlier one & a half seater cars such as Simon Taylor's Stovebolt Special I believe there are only 3 cars in existence.  Mike Harting's 1951 car, Adrien Van der Kroft's ex Kirk Ryland's car and our car chassis 107.

HWM's 1952 works number 1 car chassis 107

When one considers the problems which George Abecassis and John Heath faced trying to build a team of Grand Prix cars in post war Britain and then to campaign them across Europe, when firms such as BRM with their corporate backing were becoming a national embarrassment, one can only admire their dedication and commitment.  They really are the unsung heroes of early British motor racing.

Images courtesy of:
grandprixinsider.wordpress.com
4shared.com
Simon Lewis Transport